Hahahah! A hip mom, love it!!! Yes, I like that description for me, too – can I borrow it? Usually I say that I am a hippie but a lazy one so I don’t quite make the full list (didn’t get round to using cloth diapers, for example, which I always imagined I would. We use chlorine-free diapers instead, by way of a compromise-ish). But somehow all us greenies are doing the best we can with the energy, knowledge and resources we have. None of us are the full-on ‘perfect’ Earth mother but we all working toward it starting with our personal priorities (for some it starts with nature and the environment, others are drawn first to helping the body find harmony, etc). We are all of us (the ones who read this kind of blog, anyway) somewhere between ‘h’ and ‘hippy’. :D

After talking about this post today I wanted to come find it. I can’t quite believe it, but basically 17 of these apply to me!
And good to know that I am not the only one who gets comments about A’s amber necklace! What do you usually say to people? Do you explain it or just say thanks and move on?

Hahahahaha – that may make you the hippiest hippy in the happy valley.

Oh, I always tell people it is a teething necklace which very often leads to questions about whether they are suppose to bit it – hah! So then I become parent-nerd and start talking about succinic acid and its wonders :)

What’s even more baffling is that I’m more of rocker-type mommy but am totally a hippie at heart. I seem to naturally gravitate to ‘crunchy’ behavior without crossing the threshold too far. I mean I barely batted an eyelid at ingesting my placenta and that’s a pretty hippie thing to do! Love this post!

Yep, that not only makes you a hippy… it makes you a hard-core one, at that. The mainstream positively gags when you mention eating your own placenta – lol. Well done you for doing what feels right, no matter what the ‘label’. That is a new kind of courage.

I have to say I’m happy to own up to 18 of those – placenta is in the freezer waiting to be planted under a tree, no eating for me, I have elements of the squeamish about me. And I wasn’t confident in my ability to EC although I would have liked to!

I now wear Yogi’s amber necklace on my wrist. I love it, I feel I have a little part of her babyhood on show.

I’ll tick off 19 with the next one. The one I haven’t is cultural I guess, so I would probably hit 20. Yet I’m really ot so very hippy (even though, when people talk to me about parenting, or most other general things, I feel like I must start a sentence with ‘we tend to do things a bit differently’)

I think you get to award your own hippy points here. That is how hippy we are – no competition, no grading save for what you chose to grant yourself. So if you feel hippy-pride swelling when another is converted to BLW, own it, celebrated, go get the beads and the flares. You are it!

I’m a completely HUGE hippy mama but many items you have on your list will never apply/never can apply to me as an adoptive mama. There are many ways to be “hippy” that go well beyond this list … just a different perspective and some food for thought about the “other” mama’s out there who do share motherhood with our fellow sisters, but not in the way you promote it here.

Hi, I hear you and you are right this is written very much from that one (birth mother) angle. It was not meant to deliberately exclude but it is describing the experience of one sub-culture ‘hippy birth-mamas’. It does not apply to all, you are right.

I have several friends who have adopted, including my uncle and aunt – I grew up with one adoptive cousin and even, when his adoptive mother tragically passed away, urged my parents to adopt him if his dad didn’t step up, which he totally did. I have often thought of adopting myself. I don’t think being an adoptive mother makes you less of a hippy. In fact loving a baby because it is a ‘child of god’ (whether it was born of my loins or not) could be said to be a pretty radical hippy behaviour, in some cases, at least. Love that is unconditional and soul-to-soul is… well, not even ‘hippy’ just Human (in the highest and best sense).

Anyway, this article was just meant as a bit of fun. It is not meant to be the final word on what constitutes a truly hippy mother… much less a ‘good’ mother. And I am not ‘promoting’ these practices through this article, as I said many of them I don’t even practice myself (I don’t EC, I didn’t eat my placenta – to name but two). I am not saying these practices are what is right and this is what people *should* do to earn some kind of desirable hippy status. This is not a prescription. This is a description of what I see when I look around at other mums in this crunchy enclave of Northern California… and again, they are meant to be jokes, not literal.

@Mamapersoff – I would have loved to but as a foster-adopt mom, you’re a foster-mom first (read: not legally your child in any way, shape or form) and that would have been the fastest way for her to be removed from my home.Heck, she would have thrived on BM as a medically fragile preemie who was never held in the NICU until I brought her home at day 12 (nice system we have). So, honestly? I’m just thrilled to actually BE a momma, never mind being chosen to be someone’s momma – everything else has been icing on the cake.

I would think Mayim Bialik was awesome if she didn’t have her sons’ genitals cut at birth. There is nothing hippy, holistic, crunchy, attached, or natural about performing archaic genital mutilation rituals on baby boys against their will & without their consent.

Okay, I hear you. I actually didn’t know that at the time of writing this article. But in all honesty knowing that does not make me think Mayim is less of an amazing communicator and excellent advocate for many positive parenting practices. She is influencing many people and reaching new audiences that would not have thought of extended breastfeeding as normal, for example. I applaud and thank her for that.

I would not circumcise my own children. I find it, yes, quite barbaric and outdated. However, I can see that being a devout jew or muslim AND an attached/natural parent would bring some pretty difficult choices and challenges. I am not perfect. I do not even do all the things on this little list here… let alone all the things I think I should to be a perfect human being. I have glass roofs and so – today at least – will not be casting any stones. I guess my personal position is that I ‘allow’ a religious exception on this. Sooooo many of my friends were circumsised (seeing as I lived so long in London where I have many jewish and muslim friends). I do not feel like accusing each and every one of their mothers of unethical mutilation. they did the best they could with the information, confidence and influences they had at the time… isn’t that what we all do?

Again, as I said & as should be perfectly obvious, there is nothing hippy, holistic, crunchy, attached, or natural about performing archaic genital mutilation rituals on baby boys against their will & without their consent.

Some Muslim women in other cultures believe they are required to have their baby GIRLS’ genitals cut. If they get their daughters’ labia trimmed or clitoral hood snipped, would you include them on a list of hippy parenting? No? Then why is it OK for boys?

Muslims are NOT required to mutilate their boys OR girls. It is NOT in the Koran; it is a cultural issue. As for Jews, do you know how completely impossible it is to keep all 613 mitzvahs? If they can’t keep all of them, why keep the ONE that involves cutting someone ELSE’S genitals?

Awesome. So Jews and Muslims cannot be hippy or crunchy parents now? We throw all our cred out the window because of what our sons’ penises look like? You might as well just write a sign for the Crunchy Parenting clubhouse: “Only for Christians and Pagans. Jews and Muslims Keep Out.”

Again, as I said & as should be perfectly obvious, there is nothing hippy, holistic, crunchy, attached, or natural about performing archaic genital mutilation rituals on baby boys against their will & without their consent.

How about you– are you down for adding a “hippy” mom to the list who has her daughters genitals cut in any way?

Did you know that there are 4 different types of female genital mutilation– 2 of which are easily LESS harmful & intrusive than male “circumcision”? The most common form of female circumcision is called “excision” & removes a tiny amount of skin compared to male genital mutilation. Would you celebrate a mother who performed circumcision on her baby GIRL?

See my above comment for your statement on religion; none of what you said is accurate.

You know, my son is intact. If I have any more sons, they will be intact. My husband is going through foreskin restoration. We support the rights of individuals to choose what happens to their own genitalia… but you are rude. And you are unpleasant. And you add nothing to the conversation except vile, hateful rhetoric. I was enjoying reading the replies until I got to yours and all the replies to it.

It must be lovely to be able to be so sure that coming into a public space and spouting judgement is okay. Because even as I’m typing this, I’m wondering if it’s worth hitting ‘Post Comment’ because I don’t WANT to be a rude, judgmental, hateful person.

But I think it’s worth pointing out that you are HURTING the intactivist cause, because people are going to think we’re all hate-filled harpies, exactly as you are portraying yourself in this reply and the replies that followed.

Well look at you, Erynne! What glorious hypocrisy you display. You wonder if you should hit “Post Comment” because you don’t WANT to be rude, but you do it anyway. After accusing my of being rude– for doing nothing more than listing some facts & opinion. Just like everyone else. So what did you achieve here? You are unpleasant & add nothing to the conversation except vile, hateful rhetoric. You are judgmental & hateful, everything you accuse me of being. Guess what? You shouldn’t have hit “Post Comment.” No one here seems anything like a hate-filled harpy except you.

the way you turned this into a ‘womens rights’ ( female genital mutilation which you have mentioned 1/2 a dozen times) makes me think you are one of those fanatics that give feminism a bad name….. this article has NOTHING to do with women’s rights, or what Mayim has/has not done to her son’s genitals… I thinks that is neither your business or your place to comment.. when I think ‘hippie’ I think of love and acceptance of all regardless of their personal choices, you dear Kristen are neither loving or accepting and should be ashamed of yourself… I hope some day you can forgive yourself for your prejudices

Hippy = love & acceptance regardless of personal choices? Hardly. Hippies have always been activists at the forefront of the political scene, fighting for the rights of others. Why in the world would I be ashamed of myself for mentioning that Mayim Bialik doesn’t belong on a hippy list because she participates in genital mutilation? That is nothing to be ashamed of. You kind of come across as a cutter– I hope someday you can forgive yourself for that.

First of all, thank you Gaurisunshine for making this space to play in, I am not sure quite how I got here, being neither married nor with child, but I find it all quite fascinating anyway, a whole new world. So, time for some gambolling…:)

Not having children myself, I cannot comment on any of the hipster mommy comments, other than to say that I feel inspired and warmed to see and feel so much love and attention being generated even through your words on the internet – how much more stronger and powerful must it be in reality!

The only thing I can comment on is circumsicion, my parents being muslims but myself not practising. I myself was circumcised at age 9 at my parents home with a gathering to celebrate this rite of passage, It was painful but also it felt like I had joined “the tribe”, as a child you want to belong and its a ritual that makes you feel you belong. It is only when you stop being a child that you can become more aware of your feelings as a child and see them objectively and whether there are alternative methods to achieve the same objective.

Now, I don’t think any of you are disagreeing with the principle that, should it be culturally and/or religously possible, it should be the child in question who should make the choice as to whether or not to be circumscised, as by that choice he or she is deciding whether to move within his parent’s religion or outside it. By looking at it this way, it becomes much clearer that the child him or herself is not choosing whether to live under his parents’ love, it is a completely separate choice. It is often the parent’s fault (it was in mine), as they confuse non acceptance of a religion as non acceptance of them, which is (I think) mostly not the case.

If that principle is accepted, then the next thing to ask is whether, medically, it is possible to achieve that objective in terms of circumsicion. As far as I am aware, it is perfectly possible to be circumscised at any age. Therefore, it is medically possible for a person to be circumscribed at an age when he or she can make choices independent of his parent’s choices. Under Judaism, that age may be 13, when the Bar Mitzvah is carried out. In any case, age 13 would seem a good age at which a child should be able to make a decision as to what path he wants to go down, to join the “tribe” of his parents or find his or her own tribe.

I myself have never felt myself particularly Islamic and, apart from the physical annoyance of never knowing what it is like to have sex with a foreskin, what is more annoying (I think….:)) is that I have been marked forever as a muslim, through no decision or will of my own. Rather, it was my parents acting unconsiously and within a tradition which made them put their own beliefs onto me, at an age when I did not question my parents beliefs too much. Imagine how much more responsible I would have felt if they had instilled in me that it was my choice whether or not to be circumscised and that they would love me even if my choice was not to be. I know they would have suffered through such a choice of mine, but sometimes the point of loving is to suffer for the sake of another. I believe te world would be a much better place if all persons realised the separation of parent and child, each with their own will, and circumsicion, as carried out on a child on the parents’ wishes, is one of those things which denies that separation.

In summary, I would say that I have nothing against circumsicion as a religous practice, but it should be a decision made by the child and not the parent – there is nothing medically which prevents circumsicion being carried out at a later age (as far as I’m aware).
All the best
Mothiur

Total hippie here, and super proud of it! The only ones that didn’t apply to me were the Amber necklace (can’t afford one, but want/need one terribly!), no Waldorf toys (again, I am poor, LOL!) and my placenta is still in my freezer waiting to be planted simply because I did not want to owe my midwife more money for encapsulating it. So really, the only ones that don’t apply are the ones involving money that I don’t have! Ha!

I think I hit about 18, but I have been told I was born 30 years late (hippy) since at least middle school. I’ve always been “weird” and love it. I would add the homeschooling too. (I bought my tub though, not renting. :) ) I think using essential oils and herbs would get included too.

Yep, good point about the herbs, etc. That is so taken as read in my life that it didn’t even come to mind as being ‘hippy’, I guess. It is like the water to my proverbial fishyness – haha.

I hear you on the being weird. I grew up in Portugal which, trust me, was not a hippy-welcoming place when I was growing up. I stood out like a sore thumb. And now, here I am in California, a cliche!! It is all about context. Hehehe.

I did not know that. As I said bellow, though… I would not cicrumsise my own children. I believe this practice served a purpose perhaps (at the least it was *believed* that it increased hygiene) but times have changed. We have better research… but this is typically a religious (rather than evidence-based) choice and clearly was in Mayim’s case. I think she would describe herself as a jew first and AP advocate second (not sure, don’t want to put words in her mouth). I think she does an excellent job as an advocate for natural parenting approaches and is helping to educate many women on gentler ways of birthing and caring for their kids. At the very least she is a gateway to natural parenting for many young women and that is a good thing for which I am grateful. I don’t agree with everything she does and says, of course. But, in any case this was meant as a little light hearted article about some of the funny themes that we all recognise if we are in the alternative parenting movement and – love her or loathe her – Mayim’s name is recognisable to most of us now. It served its purpose.

Loved this. Cheers. Particularly liked the ‘WTF is a doolaley’ – that had me in stitches. For the record ‘doolaley’ (which I may well have mispelled) is a British word, derived originally from India, actually, that means a bit crazy… so you are pretty close with demented, anyway – hah.

My original list was meant as a bit of fun. It was not at all meant for mums to start comparing and judging each other as to if they are better in terms of being alternative than their peers – that is just nuts and the opposite of the spirit in which this was written. In fact (and maybe I’ll do a post about this) I originally wrote this when somebody called me out on the fact that I was a ‘hippy’ and didn’t use cloth diapers (which I have blogged about) and essentially I was talking to her about the fact that we are all (us cruchy-ish types) just human and we all do what we do and don’t do what we don’t do and that is okay.

The post was meant as fun and lighthearted, many of those things do not represent me or even my aspirations, they are just things I have heard of people doing or exagerations for effect, for a joke. I am amused at how seriously some people are taking this. Anyway, for some reason your post prompted me to share all this. Thanks for playing along – loved reading your version. Rock on!

Ok, ok. I don’t quite fit the stereotypes here but I wanted to join the fun lol

Here goes:

you rent a birthing pool (nope, just used my tub)

you are intent on using hypno-birthing over an epidural (don’t use any “technique” really, except the “get out of my space and leave me alone to wiggle and do my thing” technique – I always knew I wouldn’t need an epidural or Lamaze or whatevers they offer these days)

you have a doula or a homebirthing midwife (nope, solo is the only way for me to go)

you secretely wish Ina May could be with you at your child’s birth (see above)

you know how to tie a moby (INDEED! But woven wraps are so much more comfortable and last ages beyond birth to six months!!!)

you regularly wake up with a kick to the stomach or a baby ‘self-serving’ from your left boob (Wake up? lol Wake up…)

your doctor speaks to you slowly (like you must be from a foreign planet) when you decline their vaccination schedule (Doc..torrr? what is this creature you speak of?)

you have been carrying around a potty since your child was a newborn (that is one thing I can say I am not hip with. I use cloth diapers)

your baby’s first food is a big ol’ chunk of veg (not a puree) (indeed)

you have a pail full of stinky (cloth or compostable) diapers in your house (cloth!)

you do a dance for joy when your kid does their first sign (haha, yes indeed)

your child’s toys are Waldorf approved (not actually sure…)

your back aches from carrying your one year old round in a sling (no, only because I’ve found more comfortable carriers that I can continue baby wearing on up to 3 or 4 years old! :D)

you are always being told how cute your kid looks in that amber necklace (YES – or lapis, or hazelwood)

you are breastfeeding a child who can speak in whole sentences (lol not yet, but I have and will again)

you teach your kid that gluten is yucky (no, but one is vegan by choice and they both know that food dyes and artificial flavors are “like poison”)

you find yourself singing along to the ‘hello song‘… even though there is nobody else in the car (I do not know this hello song, but my children have djembe drum, cabassas, and other musical toys)

you think Mayim Bialik rocks and that tiger-mom is a bit doolaley (I do not understand either of these cultural references)

you think exposing your kid to germs is good for him but pesticides are hazmat (INDEED)

As I said in the article those items don’t all ‘belong’ to me and most have been distorted or exaggerated for effect, for fun. For example, my kid is now 18 months old and I still carry her everywhere – with no back pain!! It was just a silly joke.

LOVE your birthing technique and well done on the free birthing! Inspiring :)

15…….**shakeshead** Okay…..fine……My name is Bobbie Hardy, and I am a hippie…..sad my neighbor called it before I knew. We watched them shoot off fireworks, and to thank them for the show, I brought them some of my homemade granola bars that were still warm from the oven. She called me a hippie momma!!

Love this list. I am definitely a ‘hippie mama” and proud of it! I wear both my kiddos sometimes-one is 6 months the other is 2 1/2 yrs-and get very strange looks. Sometimes the big guy needs the close time too!
I love the mornings when our toddler gets out of his bed and snuggles up in our bed with us(hubby, 6 month old and me). He has a twin bed in our room. I like having us all be together. I sleep better.
We all (minus hubby) have amber necklaces.
I’ve slowly weeded out the annoying electronic toys that people insist on buying when I tell them we don’t need them.
Even my hubby admitted having a homebirth with our second was much better than the hospital birth our first.
:)

I may be too hippy as I bought my birthing pool, didn’t have any attendants at my last two births and my back doesn’t ache from babywearing, I love it.
I can relate to the rest. No mention of homeschooling or unschooling but I guess we are only talking babies (‘cept the toddler/young child feeding <3 )

Yep my babe was pretty young when I wrote this so unschooling wasn’t really on my radar yet (was just looking into it) and have said that if I wrote this list again would definitely include it!

I also exclusively wear my 1.5 year old with no back pain. That was meant as a joke but have had a fair few comments about it (on facebook and elsewhere). I guess if I were to re-write this list I would also try for a ‘joke’ that didn’t make my babywearing knowledge look so flimsy – hah!

True, vegetarianism could well have been on that list, too. Interestingly, many of my crunchiest friends here in the US are not veggie. In fact veggie-consciousness seems somewhat behind here, compared to London… but then, it would really. For the record though, I eat fish, so perhaps that is why vegetarianism fell off my radar. Oops.

Wow this is a great post! I love meeting other ‘hippy’ mums… to me they’re the normal ones :> As a naturopath, I am instantly labeled as a hippy mum, but I feel very proud to go against the norm when raising our kids. I would love to add to the hippy list that my kids can break into a great downward dog at any time of the day ; >

I got about 7 and wish I had more. I was very uneducated any many of these ways of parenting. I love both my boys very much and we did circumcise both of them. I never even knew about it, and when I was asked if we would circumsice I was like what is that. She said oh everyone does it and when I told my husband he said I am, so of course we will. I feel horrible about it, I just never really thought about it and was so uneducated. At that point in my life I was just excited I chose to breastfeed considering I never knew of anyone who did and my only support was my husband. For our hopefully one day third child we will do a homebirth and definitely not circumsice. I forgave myself once I started learning more and actually thinking about it. The past is the past and cannot be changed, but I know that I am a great hippy mom with some uneducated decisions of my past. We all grow and learn new things everyday and I will not judge someones decision because of my own mistakes. I am happy to say that we are a happy family of unschoolers. Harmony and love to all you hippy mamas.

I’d love to see something for hippy mamas that have something, anything to do with life past toddlerhood. What do you think happens when we stop having babies? Or when they’re a bit more independent? We cart em off to McDonalds, leave them in the ball pit and tell them to call us when they need college tuition?

As someone who was herself brought up by hippies I can verify that is exactly what happened: at age 1 they kicked me out of bed, hooked me up to soda and taught me to fend for myself by pick-pocketing on the streets… uh, or not. I hear ya! This was a post about hippy-mamas to small babes. As I say, I am looking forward to somebody writing the follow on :)

I agree with Ann, though; let’s have a bit for toddlers and small children on this list. The homeschool/unschool/alternative school is one. What about not giving your child any cow’s milk or juice? What about co-sleeping with a toddler? What about breastfeeding past infancy? Let’s hear it for the hippie mamas who keep on hippin’ after their baby can toddle.

or being a hippy momma all the way to school-age and beyond? we still share a family bed (daughter is almost five), and are a vegetarian, organic, homesteading, attached, positive parenting family. There’s no need for it to “stop” at infancy — heck, those were the easy years :)

I’m not a mama yet, but I plan to do all these things and am familiar with all but two of them – I don’t know about amber necklaces (although I think I can infer) and I have no idea what the Hello song is.

I must not be terribly hippy because only 2 of these applied to me. Another thing that’s not on the list that we do is recycle. I was actually shocked not to see it on the list. Most of my friends think I am “crazy” anyway though solely because I cloth diaper. This list was pretty funny though as I have at least heard of many of these things talking to people in the “natural parenting” community and I am glad to see that MOST of the comments to this post were not people trying to “one up” each other by making it seem like they are better than other moms for the choices they made. Again, great and humorous article!

And where I live I feel it makes me even more “crunchy” that I quit work when my daughter was born so I could be a SAHM (and she’s 7 months old now). When I had my son (who’s now 8) it just wasn’t possible, but I have always had the “old fashioned” belief that if possible I would rather be able to raise my kids myself than have someone else (a day care) raise them.

DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way saying moms who have to work or choose to work are bad in any way. ALL my other mom friends work and they are GREAT moms. I was just stating the fact that I stay home with my kids (at least in my area) makes me more of a “crunchy” mama…

Wow! Okay, I have been away for a couple of days for a number of reasons and I come back to this. Thank you for all the lovely, supportive and fun-loving comments! There are also a number of less ‘loving’ comments on here. I am going to come back and read all of them again and try and reply where possible, as I have to go out now – busy is the life of a mom, right?

Mayim is no less an attachment parent because she circumcised. She just can’t put ‘intativist’ on her own hippie list, like many other mums. Everyone’s list is going to be different but it does not mean that because we don’t have everything that we are not dedicated parents. Am I any less ‘alternative’ because I use disposables but I babywear, co-sleep, breastfeed, practice baby-led feeding, etc? Of course not. We are not after labels anyways aren’t we? Mayim’s choices may not get kudos from everyone, but neither will any of yours either. Mayim’s advice on many other topics resonate with me and I am not going to judge her harshly on this one choice I do not personally agree with. Casting such stones would be petty don’t you think?

I have 9! Would be 11 because I would to have a homebirth in the water but I could never afford to pay a midwife to come to the house for a home birth and Insurances have not yet started covering that :)

I wouldn’t have thought of myself as a hippy Dad but I DO have to admit to ticking off a good few items of this list. Obviously I can’t have the self-servicing boob monster and the placenta eating was RIGHT out (“don’t even offer it to me doc”) but amber necklaces and kids in the bed is cool!

Yes, that makes you a hippy. Congratulations and welcome to the club. And okay you didn’t eat your placenta… uh… but did your partner, whoever gave birth to your munchkins, eat theirs – that would definitely count, too! But this is very much an all-in society. Anybody who is thinking outside the box, following their heart and resorting to nature more than man-made solutions can ‘join’ if they want. :D

hmm…I marked off 13, it would have been 14, but I went with a birthing center and in the end had to have a c-section :-( So…glad I just discovered your blog. I blog as well. As for the baby nursing off of your left boob my little girl, 11 months, literally shows the sign for milk, then smacks my boob and tries to get it out herself when we are out and about! lol

14/20! Love the list. Lots of chuckles and nods over here. I would add something to the effect of happily setting your alarm clock on Saturday morning to take Moby wrapped baby to the local Farmer’s Market.
Or
Can your kids identify more species of local flora and fauna than they can digital apps (much to their own delight).
Thank you for sharing! We enjoyed it.